The three CFL games this week averaged 741, 000 viewers. That is fairly consistent with last week’s average.

With no baseball or hurricane competition, Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football were well up over last week. The average rating for the two games was up 37% over last week.

After a great start, Raptors ratings have fallen back to the usual. Even on Tuesday night with no competition from original programming (except on CBC), the game couldn’t muster 100, 000 viewers.

The CFL playoffs begin this weekend. Chris Cuthbert and Glen Suitor will call the East Semi Final between the Argonauts and Eskimos, while Rod Black and Duane Forde will call the West Semi Final as the Roughriders face the Stampeders. I think both games will see ratings increases over last season. Last year the CFL’s two smallest markets, Hamilton and Winnipeg, both made the playoffs at the expense of large markets in Toronto and Saskatchewan. With the Riders and Argos both playing on Sunday, it will only help ratings in English Canada. Since the Alouettes played in the East Semi last season, RDS will likely see a large drop off compared to last year.

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21 thoughts on “Canadian Sports Ratings Update: November 9”

Tuesday night was the US election. People were glued to their TVs watching CNN and the American networks. Surely that had a lot to do with the Raptors’ paltry audience figure of 91,000 on November 6th.

I have a friend who missed our local Remembrance Day on Friday last as all he watches is American TV. (they have a different day). Watching the US election is one thing , watching their second rate TV productions is another.

Lol, yes I do watch Canadian programing. I must admit I mostly comment on European Soccer and recently my surprise at the ratings CFL games draw. My 2 favorite sports to watch are Soccer and NFL football, so I do probably come across as not following the Canadian sports franchises very much.

As for the US Election, I can’t help it, CNN makes a good show out of it.

There are no Canadian teams left in the MLS playoffs. So for the playoff games that are being televised in Canada the numbers will most likley be low. This is the reason that the MLS is exited about getting Ottawa in very soon and with other new stadiums being built along the lines of what the MLS wants for its franchises. The MLS and CFL have a certain standard now that they want in new stadiums and they are exactly the same. Edmonton seems content to be a NASL tier II team. Will be intersting to see what happens in Hamilton and Winnipeg. Currently te MLS gets 4 teams in the CONCAF international pro World Cup. the MLS gets two auto bids from the top two US MLS teams. Canada gets one bid from its National chanpionships which include NASL team in EDM and another team is added from the winner of the US soccer open which includes MLS and NASL teams in the US. The MLS wants more teams in Canada with the possibilty of having two teams from Canada which would be most likely be among the MLS franchsises.

Ottawa will make the jump from the NASL once the stadium and the Ottawa franchise in the NASL is up and solid much like Montreal. Also talk about pro soccer in Hamilton to go with the stadium. Soccer may actually help to get a stadium in Halifax. The Atlantic Region is wide open for sports franchises. All it needs is a stadium. The Mooseheads Junior hockey got the whole Region involved with franchises to the point where the Atlnatic teams have there own division now in the Quebec conference and teams are dong well.
The NBL has also focused on the sports market in Atlantic Canada with 4 team Atlantic divison for the 8 team league.
Next stadium and CFL and pro soccer in Halifax

i doubt Halifax gets a new stadium anytime soon. And I really doubt there is the interest here to support soccer. CFL is iffy at best. Moncton makes more sense only because it is a reasonable drive from Fredericton, Saint John, Charlottetown and Halifax.

I would not be too hasty about the situation in Halifax. This is a new region which is wide open for pro sports. The recent start of the NBL of Canada chose the Atlantic region for 4 of its teams thanks to the Junior Hockey team that Moosehead started, which everyone said wold never work, the Atlantic region now has its own division in the Quebec Junior Hockey.
As for a Stadium in the HMR at Shannon park has been re opened for another look right before the Grey Cup 100. Comish Cohon said all new expansion will be put on hold until after the 100th grey cup which happens to be two weeks away. As for Soccer Canada wants the 2026 Mens WC right now evryone says no but building another new stadium couldn’t hurt there chances. council woman Uteck who wanted the money to go to a 10,000 seat Saint Mary’s campus stadium is out leaving one less thorn in the side for those who want a 25,000 seat stadium. As for pro Soccer the MLS wants to expand into Canada more. the MLS will seriously consider any city that has a MLS standard sized Stadium of about 25,000 the same exact size as the CFL is looking for. So any Stdium going up in any City in Canada has a chance at two tenents. last season the MLS also had its largest television rating avegage ever. It happens to be the same year that both Vancouver and Montreal have expansion teams giving TSN and RDS 3 times the games to televise. The CFL had its best ratings in 2010 and a new TV deal coming.
SO both the CFL and MLS once thought to be a losing proposition suddenly have become two leagues where teams are making more and more profits each year with More and more people watching each year.
The NASL tier II soccer league has welcomed teams like Montreal Impact to start in the tier II league and move to the tier I MLS. More pro soccer teams in Canada also mean a bigger CONCAF Canadian soccer tournament. Canada currently get one team in Concaf the US gets 3 the top 2 from the MLS and one from the US open field which includes the tier II teams but the MLS tier I teams ultimatley win. So right now the MLS gets 4 teams in the CONCAF pro team WC. If Canada were to grow with more pro soccer teams the MLS could get a second rep from Canada uppint the tier I leagues rep up to 5 teams

Interersting…….Pro soccer may rock in Ottawa……but will the CFL survive?, after all , it is an older demograhic. As to the Maritimes, well certianly hockey will be a big draw always, , but perhaps soccer is right behind. Yes?

The CFL is at the Height of its popularity in Canada because of the extensive TV coverage of TSN. When Ottawa last folded there was almost no TV money but with the TV feal looking for a big boost and since Ottawa was last in the CFL not all games were shown Nationally which they now are. Also All of Montreals games are shown on french Sportsnet RDS and the same would be done for Ottawa with 35% of the Ottawa-Gatineau Region pop being french language first. Also CIS football will also be back in full gear with Carleton coming back using the Laval corperate Model and a refurbished football facility. the Gee Gees are also getting a new Football facility and the teams will have the return of the popualr Panda game at the new stade in Landsdowne park. The new Ownership is targeting a 20-35 year old demographic as well as the french demographic over the river in Gatineau which has never been done i the past.

Not convinced……you have to go back to the grass roots. And where is the grass roots for gridiron football?
Sure there are a number of amateur teams, but essentially very few, because of the cost and capital outlay,
and also because it is not a natural game to play as a youngster……kicking a ball around, by contrast is very different, and down the road a while, the CFL may have a major survival problem.

The sport of Soccer will be played by many more at the younger youth level but there will still be those who have youth football programs younger than HS. North American Football like the NFL and CFL will be much more popular than what the rest of the world calls football but we call soccer. It much more highly entertaining at a pro and Colligiate level and enough of the better athletes will be playing it at the HS level than soccer. When going to the grass roots means idedifying the game and the players with younger generation of school students. does not mean that they all have to be playing football at 10 years old but being aware of it as they grow up playing many different sports those who ar physically able to play football will play. Being a fan of the CFL does not mean that you had to play football and there are many more female fans than ever before.
The NFL and the CFL will be not going anywhere for quite some time and as much as pro and international soccer are becoming more popular football is still only played once a week do to the nature of the sport so the build up to that game onthe weekend is what makes it that much more exciting when it finally happens.

I saw the ratings elsewhere with the Francophone TV audience on RDS for the ALs BBs game was at 242,00. so the actual TV numbers for that game were about 884,000. Always need to include those RDS numbers They make a big difference and the mostly french province feels included when it comes to the CFL. Those numbers were actually a little lower than usual. I imagine do to the fact that the Als clinched and AC was not going to play.
The playoff game will be up to well over 500K for the game on RDS as well as 50,000plus at olympic as playoff fans come from all over the province for the playoffs. It also helps that it is indoors and comfortable. If the Riders get to the West finals i would expect 40Kplus at BC place and TV numbers up ove 1 million easily ame with the combined TSN and RDS ratings for whoever montreal plays.

They need to start posting TV numbers on the CFL website now to include the total between TSN and RDS. The numbers are really good so there should not be any reason to hide them like in the past. numbers were a little lower in 2011 from 2010 but it was more of just leveling off as they were still great numbers for the CFL again.